Return of the Guardians
by farglewiggins
Summary: Renee is a watcher. That means that she can see spirits without needing to believe. But that isn't much use against the new threat against the Guardians. Pitch Black has recruited a team of monsters including The Monster in the Closet, Slenderman, and several others. When Renee and a few friends become spirits, she'll need all of her courage, love, and belief to win the fight.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

The still night was dark and forbidding. It was late and no one was awake. A windstorm brewed on the horizon, with occasional flashes of lightning dancing through the thick mass of black clouds.

One such flash lit up a small, deserted street corner. On this corner stood a tall, dark figure. His presence radiated Fear strong enough to claw its way to a man's heart and stop it in an instant.

He shifted his weight and started tapping his foot. He was waiting

Suddenly out of the darkness came seven other figures, all varying in size, shape, and movement. Some walked, some slithered, and some glided.

"About time!" He said in an annoyed growl, "I've been waiting for almost an hour!"

"Vell, eets not _my _fault, Pitch!" A small, extremely furry gremlin, with large, bat-like ears and sharp claws whined, "Gulpugh stopped in Berlin to devour a veinerschnitzel cart, and _I_ had to vait for heem!"

Pitch just glared.

"It was very good, too…" A large, revolting, slimy creature with three eyes, thousands of tiny, sharp, yellow teeth, and a French accent, slithered up to the conversation.

Pitch examined Gulpugh for a moment… the slimy, yellow-green fat rolls under his neck, the bulging stomach, the short, wet claws protruding from his chubby, greedy fingers, and the sickly yellow rims around his black empty iris's all added to the grossness.

"You disgust me." Pitch sneered dryly.

"Why, thank you!" the large blob exclaimed, jollily.

Pitch rolled his eyes and then turned to the rest of the group, which had come, at least partly, out of the deep shadows that surrounded the street corner.

"Thank you all for coming, good to see you, blah blah blah- Now let's get to business… Some of you don't know each other, so we'll quickly do introductions; I'm Pitch Black, the Nightmare King, most commonly known as the Boogeyman… my element: FEAR."

The short furry gremlin was next.

"Hallo, Ich heisse MITCH. Ich bin der verruckt Kobold-"

" _English_ please!" Pitch interrupted.

MITCH (for that was his name) grumbled.

"Hello, my name is MITCH, Which stands for **M**onster **I**n **T**he **C**loset with an '**H**' on the end-"

"Why is there an H on the end?" a grumpy, hag-of-a-black-woman with a southern accent interjected.

MITCH, now extremely annoyed, snapped back, "Because my name would be too silly as MITC! It doesn't roll off of the tongue like MITCH! Now please no more interruptions! My element is ANGER!"

"Ironic, is it not." A tall figure hissed. He had no face, many octopus-like arms, and wore a tuxedo. "My name is Slenderman and my element is CHAOS."

"_Everybody_ knows who _you_ are these days!" the hag snarled, "You're lucky that your legend is back out amongst the younguns! _Nobody's_ heard of_ Huggin Molly_."

"If no one has ever heard of you, why don't you introduce yourself." MITCH suggested with a sarcastic tone.

Huggin Molly growled at him, then spoke with gritted teeth, "My name is Huggin Molly. I used to love children, but I never had any so I grew bitter and jealous. Now, as a spirit, I can turn myself into a ravishing doll of a woman, and mesmerize all the children into coming to me. Then I wrap my arms around them over and over again and squeeze them to death… or at least I used to be able to. Now almost no one believes in me. Only the few watchers can see me, but I can never get close enough… Oh and my element is JEALOUSY."

" Soooooo… why do _I_ never see you as a '_ravishing doll_'?" MITCH teased.

"BECAUSE YOU NEVER SEE ME, UNLESS YOU'RE MOCKING ME!" she screeched.

"That's _enough_!" Pitch snarled, "I have NOT brought us here to quarrel! Now… who's next?"

"I zink dat would be muah." Gulpugh suggested.

"Very well…" Pitch said, rolling his eyes again.

"My name eez Gulpugh, I am distantly related to Jabba ze Hutt and Bob ze indestructible gelatinous man, and my element is GREED."

"_Thank_ you, Gulpugh, now..." Pitch trailed off as a raspy voice like nails on a chalkboard, poisonous snakes hissing, and parched bones grating against each other, all in one, then spoke.

"Might I interrupt, but we are losing time…"

Pitch glared for a moment, "Well _Choker_, why don't _you_ introduce yourself?" he spoke coolly.

"My pleasure," the voice hissed.

This horrendous voice belonged to a gruesome figure not unlike most people's ideas of the Grim Reaper. He was a tall mottled skeleton with a long dark robe that featured a deep shadowed hood to hide his empty eyes and grinning teeth. But the most terrible thing about his appearance was the skeletal hand that protruded from his neck, right where his Adam's apple should have been.

"Hello, My name is Choker. I was created through one of Pitch's Nightmares to a young girl, but was weakened by the twisting of the Nightmare into a Dream… My element is DESPAIR."

Hugging Molly shivered.

A throaty snort broke the short silence, as another terrible figure stepped forward.

"I am Karothkar the Corvuscorvialynca, and my element is DESTRUCTION."

The speaker was nothing like the others except for the dark aura that surrounded them all. He had the head of a raven, but with a slightly sharper, more angular beak, and had two spiraling antelope horns protruding from the back of his skull, suggesting a demonic feel. He had the torso and arms of a man, yet the rippling muscles were coated with a thin layer of ebony colored raven's feathers. His hands were like unto raven's talons and sported long, curved, obsidian-like claws. His legs were similar to raven's, but bore a resemblance to a prehistoric raptor's, with strong muscles and cable-like tendons. Again his feet resembled raven's talons. Then, protruding from his back, around the shoulder blades, was a massive pair of threatening, blue-black raven's wings.

"I, too, was created from a Nightmare."

"What's a Corvycorvylinka?" MITCH said obnoxiously.

Suddenly the last figure stepped out from the shadows and spoke. "It means a raven man… Bit obvious, don't you think?" It said coolly. The voice was female.

"Oo're you?" Hugging Molly grunted skeptically.

"I am Mother Nature…"

The group went silent for a moment. All of them, except Pitch, looked around at each other then suddenly burst out into a cacophony of horrible laughter.

"Hee hee hee, Mother Nature! That's just great!" Molly squealed as she held her stomach and wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. "You're not one of us!" She said again, cooling down and now speaking in a dark tone, "You don't belong here…"

"And what makes you say that?" Mother Nature said, a dangerous edge in her voice.

"Well… you're… _you_." Hugging Molly said, slightly at loss for words.

Mother Nature raised an eyebrow.

"People _love_ you!" They've got wildlife reservations and eco campaigns, _everywhere_!"

"Not to mention the fact that children frolic and thrive in your forests and gardens." Slenderman interjected quietly.

"You have no place here, you flowery baboon-of-a-" MITCH's sentence was cut off sharply as a dark green, almost black, strong, curling vine broke out of the parched ground beside him and slithered around him and over his mouth, binding him in a vice-like grip.

The other monsters, except Pitch, soon found themselves in a similar predicament; vines constraining them like large, dark anacondas.

Mother Nature prowled up to them and got straight up in their faces.

"I would think twice about insulting me…" she hissed directly in MITCH's face. She then whipped around, causing her long ebony-colored hair to slap MITCH right across his furry cheek. She then turned to Hugging Molly.

"You want to know something?" She said to Molly, her voice rising. "You're right, I _don't _belong here."

"So why are you even here?!" Hugging Molly said roughly. She then spat on the ground in front of Mother Nature.

Mother Nature's face darkened further.

"You know what?!" She screamed, "The only reason I am here, is because of him!" She pointed back at Pitch, who was casually leaning against a beat up mailbox, then continued her raving.

"And I'm sick and tired of the puny inhabitants of this Earth! You know what they actually do for me? NOTHING! In fact, the only thing they've done for me is pollute! Pollute! Pollute! They pretend that they're doing _so_ much good for me, but they just go on and on and on in their little political eco campaigns about preserving me and all. They don't _do_ anything for me, in fact, they're KILLING ME! It's better that they live in the shadow of Fear!"

By now all of the bound monsters were shaking.

Mother Nature pointed back at Pitch. "I guess _he's_ the only one who understands. He knows that if those puny humans were full of fear, they would actually leave me alone! _He _understands me! _He_ agrees with me! And _he_ protects me!..."

She paused for a moment and took a calming breath.

"... after all, isn't that what fathers do?"

The group stared at her in silent shock, all with eyes wide. Hugging Molly slowly turned her head towards Pitch.

"You have a _daughter_?!" she screeched in disbelief.

"Yes…" he said slowly, "Does that surprise to you?" He grinned coldly.

Hugging Molly blinked then spoke hurriedly, "No. I mean yes! I mean… Yes, it does. You don't really seem the daddy type…"

"Really… I'm surprised you see me that way…" His eyes glinted with a cruel amusement.

Hugging Molly saw that and looked away angrily.

Pitch laughed a nerve-racking laugh and then spoke. "Emily, you may release them. We all have much to talk about."

"Don't call me Emily…" Mother Nature said darkly.

"Whatever…"

The vines binding the monsters suddenly shriveled up, turning black and allowing the group to brush them off.

"Why _did_ you bring us here?" Karothkar questioned.

"I'm going to asume that we're all tired of the Guardians of Childhood defeating us over and over again…"

They all nodded, anger and resentment in their eyes.

"After a long time contemplating it, I realized that they have only one thing that we don't… teamwork."

Everyone started to speak at once, but Pitch raised his hand, silencing the chatter.

"They have a team, we do not. They are winning, we are not…"

"They have strength in numbers." Choker said, adding to what Pitch was saying.

"Precisely."

"So, you gathered us here to create a team?..." MITCH said skeptically.

"Yes. Alone we'll just keep getting defeated. But together…" he paused, "We'll be invincible…"


	2. Chapter 1

"**I fall 25 feet out of a tree and manage to not break every single bone in my body."**

Well my day started out normal. Or at least as normal as it can get when you're the oldest (age fifteen and proud) in a family of six kids, three of which are adopted.

It was the last day before Christmas break and everyone was anxious. As normal as I had woken up, gotten ready, and headed to school. Now, I was in the high school's library chatting with my friends and showing them my latest sketches… as normal…

"Hey Renee!" my best friend Madi Smith ran up to me, fashionably late to our little meeting, as always, "Did you see the newest episode of of Once upon a Time?!"

"No why?"

"It's the one that Rachel wrote when she was thirteen! You know the one with Goldilocks!"

I stared in giddy shock. "Wait, wait, you mean to tell me that they accepted her idea?!"

Madi nodded excitedly.

"Eeeeeeee!" we both squealed giddily and jumped up and down in a way that only teenage girls can do.

Suddenly the bell rang.

We all gathered up our belongings and headed our separate ways, quickly saying our goodbyes

"Love yo guts with both my hearts!"

I called after Madi as she waved and ran off in the direction of her first class.

" Bye Malynne." I hugged my other friend (who, I must say, was at least a foot and a half taller than me), and then I sprinted towards the art room (my first class).

The rest of the day ticked by slowly as I went through some other classes, lunch (at JCW's), more classes, and then finally stepping out of my history class.

I sighed contentedly and smiled._ Free from the stress of school until the new year has begun,_ I thought happily.

Suddenly my cellphone buzzed. I looked at the text that Madi had sent me:

Madi says: Hey grl! Min & i r going 2 the park, want 2 come? There will B trees... ;)

I text her back excitedly.

Me: Of course! Let me just txt my mom real quick!... I 3 trees... :)

I did as I said and then ran to our after-school meeting place in the commons.

"Hi Min! Hi Madi!" I said as I walked up to them (Min was Malynne's nickname). Malynne's boyfriend Teryck was with them too, seeing as he always walked home with us.

"Hi Teryck!" I added, not wanting to exclude him. "You coming to the park with us?"

"Yep, don't have anything else to do."

"Cool!" I turned to Malynne and Madi. "Are we going to go or just keep standing here, waiting for the secretary to kick us out?"

They both laughed and Malynne spoke, "We'll go."

Teryck grabbed his backpack off a bench and we all headed outside. We walked along the bush-lined path and in the direction of my favorite park in the world: Burgess's most famous (but not really, seeing as Burgess is a small… nobody town) Craven Glen Park (and Pond). Most kids just called it the Hollow.

The Hollow was like a child's dream come true (mine too). The Park was all located on a 40 acre piece of land just north of Burgess High School. It was entirely criss crossed by thousands of winding running, biking, and horse trails. About a quarter of the land was taken up by a massive, snow-covered (not in the summer), rolling field of grass. Solitary trees dotted the field every here and there, sometimes in clusters. At the north end of the meadow a small frozen lake (or large pond if you prefer) sported waving cattails and a small, closed, boating dock. Ducks and geese were everywhere, especially near the the lake. Then (my favorite part if you haven't guessed), over to the west and some to the north, the rest of the land was covered by a gigantic forest. Little clearings broke the continuous sea of trees. All sorts of trees too. Pine, Sycamore, Elk, and even European Split-leaf Weeping White Birch (I _love_ to say that). Also, winding through the forest, across the meadow, and into the lake was a sparkling, icy, crystal-clear creek trickling over various colored pebbles and rocks, and tumbling over multiple mini waterfalls and rapids.

I sighed again as a warm, moist breeze wafted across my face, reducing the Frostnip feeling for a moment.

"You comin'?" Madi called.

I snapped out of my trance to find the group far ahead of me.

"Wait for me!" I yelled back, sprinting down the hill to catch up. "Gosh child! Snap me out of it _before_ you start walking away!" I said to Madi.

"You were the only one that stopped walking!" She giggled. "You know, if you keep zoning out like that, people are gonna think you're… well-" she twirled her finger at her head (the classic indication of crazy).

I laughed, "Madi, you know just as well as I do that I could say the exact same for you!"

Malynne and Teryck were waiting for us at one of the openings into the forest where a running trail cut through the foliage.

We were all headed to our favorite spot in the forest. In the farthest northwest corner, right where the park gave way to a small neighborhood, there was a small pond surrounded by trees. For some reason it was always the first pond to freeze in the fall and the last to melt in the late spring. Then, during even the hottest summer days, the water was still frigid.

It was Malynne's favorite spot because, no matter the temperature, during the summer, she swam in it. I swear, she discovered half the aquatic life at the bottom of that puddle.

It was Teryck's favorite place because 1) the skate park was just a block away, and 2) The waffle truck liked to park on the corner.

It was Madi's favorite place because there were large, perfectly situated boulders right next to the pond, where she could sit and draw (with hints from me).

It was my favorite spot because of the huge, gnarled oak tree that hung partly over the pond and partly over Madi's boulders. I loved to climb up in the twisting branches and dangle (upside-down sometimes) over Madi, lending her tips here and there… and also there… and here… and there too. (Maybe I should just come out honestly and say that Madi's drawings were _possibly_ primitive compared to mine… Sorry Madi.)

Of course, we had to walk 2 or 3 miles to get there, so we all talked and admired the beautiful frost on the trees and the icicles hanging from the snow covered branches on the way.

Finally, after walking for about a half an hour, we arrived at the pond. I headed straight for the tree, hanging my backpack on a nearby branch. I climbed up onto the slippery branches near the top. The branches rustled slightly as a small breeze pushed by, again.

"Hey Renee! Come back down for a minute!" Malynne called up to me.

"Kay! One sec!" I called back. I took one last look at the surroundings and then scrambled back down to the group.

"Alright! I thought that maybe we could change things up for a little bit for today!" Madi rubbed her hands together enthusiastically.

"How?" Malynne questioned skeptically.

"Hide and Seek!" Madi exclaimed.

* * *

"1… 2… 3…-"

Teryck was counting. We had all decided on that after he dropped the waffle that he'd bought for Malynne (while Madi was setting the boundaries) into the pond, on accident.

We all had scattered as soon as he had said "1," and we were spreading out to find a good place to hide. I jogged along keeping an eye out for a good bush or pile of rocks. I saw some boulders that looked worthy and scurried to hide. But no sooner had I stepped behind them, Madi pushed me away.

"Sorry Girlie." She whispered, "Go find your own spot. It's a big park."

"Fine…" I grumbled, then kept jogging further into the forest.

Suddenly I slipped on a small patch of ice and started sliding down a hill. I refrained from screaming several times, after bouncing off of a couple of rocks and getting slapped by a not-so-conveniently placed branch.

My ride stopped as suddenly as it started when I finally slid out into a small clearing. I grimaced as I stood, rubbing my aching backside. I looked around, then about wet my name-brand, ThunderRock, skinny jeans with sheer delight.

There in front of me was the largest, twistiest, most gorgeous tree I had ever seen. It was so tall that I wondered how I had ever missed it before. Yet strangely enough, the first few branches were only about six feet above the ground.

Then suddenly it clicked.

"Duh! Gosh, what was I thinking?" I thought aloud. I ran up to the tree and started climbing. No one would find me in _that_ maze of gnarly branches!

As I pulled myself up through the them, a cold wind overtook the the warm breeze I had been feeling before. I was a little surprised by the suddenness of it, but then got over it, seeing as it was actually an extremely comfortable feeling. I got about four fifths of the way up the tree when I decided to stop going up and start going out. Holding onto two branches at my sides, I walked out to a comfortable-looking branch. I carefully sat down, putting my feet on a branch below me and holding onto one above my head. I looked down to see that there were only a few widely spaced limbs below me. I could tell that if I fell, I would be in the hospital for a month. Luckily, I _never_ fell while climbing a tree (or anything for that matter). _EVER. _I glanced around, waiting for something to happen. About fifteen minutes passed before I was bored. So I started singing.

"_I stand up without you, I fall down,_

_We dance on the clouds and I soar._

_I wish I could say, "I don't need you"_

_But that'd be lyin' and closing a door.-"_

The song was one of my favorites by Someone, a talented, but not well known band, that often got people confused by the name. My second favorite song by them was _That One Song_. I started on the second part of the chorus:

"_You're eyes shine like-" _

"Cool song…" a voice behind me said abruptly.

I squealed in surprised and whipped around to try and see who it was, and how they had found me. But I had made a serious mistake in doing so. I lost my balance and could feel myself falling off the branch. The boy that had spoke jumped over to my branch with surprise and concern to help me, but only succeeded in bouncing it more, shaking me off more. I tried to catch myself by grabbing another branch, but it was covered in ice and my hand slipped. I felt gravity pulling me down and I screamed.

Suddenly the wind picked up like crazy and I could feel it lifting me upward, my arms and legs flailing. I felt gravity start pulling me down again. The boy had somehow gotten to the ground before me, and stood on top of a small snow mound. As I plummeted towards the ground I saw the boy take a stance, getting ready to, what it looked like, _catch_ me. But he suddenly stopped, looking confused. WHAM! I crashed down on top of him. I saw white and blue in a kaleidoscope of sunlight as we both tumbled down the slope in a giant snowball of arms and legs. We landed in a gargantuan explosion of snow at the bottom of the mound. I lay on the snow in shock. Suddenly the boy moaned.

"Oh my gosh! I am SO sorry!" I said apologetically, as I got up, brushed myself off, and then ran over to help him up.

"S'fine." he mumbled. As he took my hand and stood. I studied him with a curious expression. Blue eyes, Light traces of freckles, blue hoody with frost patterns, brown pants, no shoes, and white hair?

At the same time he studied me. My chocolate brown hair with blonde highlights pulled into a rushed side braid, rosy frostnipped cheeks, stormy gray eyes framed by dark lashes, silver coat with a blue-gray scarf, blue skinny jeans, silver combat boots, and cream colored beany.

We both spoke at once,

"Do I know you?"

He then let out a laugh that sent chills up my spine. But they weren't bad chills, they were strangely pleasant.

"Let's just assume that neither of us know the other." He laughed again.

"Uh..." my mind had gone blank. "Um... thanks for saving me?"

"Did I?" He questioned, that mischievous laughter still in his countenance. "'Cause it sure seemed like you just fell on top of me..."

"Um... yeah..." I said awkwardly. "I... gotta go...now..." I blushed then ran off, leaving the strange boy behind.

"Hey! What's your name?!" He called after me.

I turned around, at the top of a hill, then called back.

"Renee!"

I then turned back and ran to find my friends.


	3. Chapter 2

**Sorry for the wait. Wasn't able to return to the computer for a while. Hope you liked the last chapter.**

I panted hard as I finally stopped in a clearing near the pond. I stopped to catch my breath, leaning over with my hands on my knees.

"Well, _you_ stink at hiding."

I looked up to see Teryck walking towards me.

"Ha!" I laughed sarcastically, "_You_ don't know what I just went through!"

"What? You fell out of a tree?" He said jokingly.

I just shook my head and looked down. He had no clue.

"Can you tell the others that I'm going home? I'm just kind of tired."

"Sure." He shrugged. "Don't forget your backpack." He jogged off to find the others.

"I won't!" I called after him.

I walked to the pond, deep in thought the whole way. Who _was that boy? And_ why _did he seem so familiar?_ I sighed, grabbing my bag off of the branch I had left it on earlier._ I might never know the answers to those questions_, I thought._ Gosh, I might never see _him _again._

With my mind swirling with questions, I walked the block and a half from the pond, to my home.

I walked inside to find my mom at the table with my youngest brother, James, helping him with his homework. He was ten years old and not the nicest kid on the block, even though he could be really sweet when he wanted to be. But he had A LOT of friends and was pretty cool. He was pretty cute for his age too, with his dirty-blonde hair with natural blonde highlights, chocolate brown eyes, and freckles splattered across his nose. I always told him that all the girls in his class had a crush on him, but he hated when I did and would kick me in the shins and run away.

I said hello, then dashed upstairs to my room. I had A LOT of homework to catch up on and I didn't want to leave it to the last minute to finish. So I dumped the contents of my backpack onto my desk and started working.

What seemed like a couple minutes later, my eleven year old sister, Salem, barged into my room, laughing like a maniac, and started jumping on my bed. I rolled my eyes in amusement and got up to deal with her.

"Hey, Salem!" I pleaded her attention enthusiastically, "If you leave me alone until dinnertime, I'll give you my dessert!"

She was out the door in a flash. I sighed. Tonight was English Trifle night. My favorite, since just a couple months ago, my family and I were living in London (Where my mother had learned how to make a "Proper" English Trifle). But after gaining _years_ of experience, I knew that dessert was the way to both a kid's head _and_ heart.

But, even with _decades_ of experience, it was sometimes really hard to deal with Salem. Even though her name meant Peace, she was one cuckoo-of-a-nutcracker… like the rest of my family (She was just especially crazy). She and my thirteen year old brother, Anthony, were adopted from Ethiopia before we moved to London.

I had actually met most of my friends in London. Madi had been my next door neighbor, and Rachel had lived across the street. But I only knew Rachel for eight months before she died in a car crash shortly after her fourteenth birthday. Madi and I had a quick time recovering, only because we knew something that no one else did. Rachel had become a spirit. Her name was now Zaria Stellarus, the wishing star, and she was gorgeous (not that she wasn't when she was… alive). But only Madi and I knew she existed (Until we told Malynne, but that's a different story).

But how both me and Madi ended up in Burgess is a short but sweet story. Basically, my parents had told me that the family was moving to the U.S. the next day. I was heartbroken that I was leaving Madi, and that I wouldn't even get to say goodbye. A month and a half and I had already lost my only friends. But when we got there, lo and behold, Madi's family moved into the house across the street, only a week later. Apparently, Madi's parents had been consulting with mine for a very long time and they had made a plan to move to the U.S. together. The only reason Madi's family didn't come along until a week is because of extended family complications (mainly a death and two births).

We met Malynne and Teryck there (they weren't together yet) and we became a trio + Teryck. Whatever you would call that… a quadro? Sadly we could only get Malynne to see Zaria, Teryck just couldn't.

I snapped out of my backflash-like daydream to see Zaria tapping on my window. Somehow I had been daydreaming long enough that it was dark outside now. I walked over and opened the window.

"Hey Renee." Zaria said happily.

"Hey Zari!"

We hugged, happy to see each other.

"Holy chicken nuggets, It's been a while!" She spoke enthusiastically.

"No kidding. How are you? Where are you staying? Is it with Sandy? Do you ever wear _anything_ other than that dress?"

"Whoa! Whoa! One question at a time!" Zaria giggled.

I smiled mischievously and then said, "Okay, answer each question in order."

She took in a large breath and then let it out as an amused sigh. "Alright, I am doing great, I'm staying with Sandy on his Dream island and have become quite good friends with the mermaids, and I do have other things to wear, but I just haven't gotten around to changing… Why do you ask? Does it look bad?"

"No! Of course not! It's just kind of boring seeing you visit day after day, always wearing the same thing." I said quickly. "I mean, when you were… alive, you would always come to school and stuff with a different _gorgeous_ outfit everyday, I don't think that I saw you wear something twice!"

Zaria laughed.

"Thanks." she then said kindly. "So... how's life for you?"

"Fantastic but crazy and confusing."

"As life is..."

"Yeah..." I sighed.

"Wait a minute." Zaria said suspiciously. "You met someone, didn't you?"

I blushed.

"Yeah, you definitely met someone!" She said triumphantly. "C'mon, go ahead and tell me!"

"Well..." I hesitated, but then decided that I might as well. "I don't know his name, but he kind of saved me from going to the hospital, on account of me falling out of a tree..."

She raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you mean you actually fell out of a tree? That is _way_ not like you!"

I smiled, embarrassed.

"What did he look like?"

I thought for a moment. "Well, he had on a blue hoodie, brown pants, and no shoes. And... he had blue eyes and white hair."

Zaria froze. "Blue hoodie? White hair?" She seemed anxious and slightly unsettled, but with a slight hint of amusement.

"Is everything okay?" I asked, worried. "Do you know him?"

"No!" she said hurriedly. "I've never met anyone like that."

"Okay..." I spoke warily. I knew that she was hiding something from me.

I glanced over at my digital alarm clock and was surprised to find it was 1:15 in the morning. I looked back at Zaria and she got the memo. We said our good-byes and she left, closing the window behind her. I watched as she ran to the edge of the porch roof and then lept off, her wishing amulet lifting her into the sky, much like an Eastern Dragon's magic pearl.

That amulet became her bond object when she died. Every spirit has a bond object. For Sandy it was the tie thingy that he wore under his sand suit, for North it was his swords (Yes, I knew about North, but I had never met him. Same with Sandy, knew about but never met). Her amulet allowed her to fly up into the night skies. It would then light up causing her to be the first star to appear, making her the wishing star. If a child wished on her, she could usually make the wish happen, but could only do small wishes. But most children missed her anyway.

I slipped into my pajamas, dove under my covers, and then turned off my bedside lamp. As I settled under the covers I listened to the subtle sounds of the night and thought. _Why did Zari seem so anxious when I described the boy? She probably knew him, but why anxiety? _I thought on until sleep drifted upon me.

A golden tendril of sand drifted in through a crack in my window and swirled over my head, forming into intricate designs and pictures.

From the crack under my door, a black trailing Nightmare snuck in and circled the ceiling, waiting for a moment to strike. It dove in to take over the dream. Suddenly it shrieked and recoiled. The dream had exploded in its face, morphing into a beautiful silver sand dragon that attacked back. The Nightmare fled, returning to it's master, hoping it would not be punished.

The dragon shimmered and then morphed again, returning to the golden dreams. I slept on.

**I seriously need some feedback for this one... I have a survey.**

**Renee is undoubtedly going to be associated with a dragon. But I don't know if:**

**A: She should have a pet dragon**

**or**

**B: She should be able to turn into a dragon**

**please review and let me know what you prefer. :) Keep looking for the next chapter!**


End file.
